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Energy
Broad coalition takes aim at renewable fuel mandate
FUEL FIX
Jennifer Dlouhy
Lawmakers on Wednesday revived their fight against the nation’s renewable fuel policy, introducing legislation to lift mandates that force refiners to blend corn-based ethanol into gasoline. The measure sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., would preserve requirements for cellulosic ethanol made from wood, grasses and other inedible plant material.
Report faults energy commission for exposing vulnerabilities of U.S. power grid
WASHINGTON POST
Josh Hicks
U.S. energy regulators provided a road map for wreaking havoc on the nation’s power grid when they released information about the network’s vulnerabilities in 2013, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday. A review by the Energy Department’s inspector general found that Federal Energy Regulatory Commission officials, including its former chairman, shared sensitive details about the U.S. electrical grid with reporters and industry officials when they should have instead considered classifying the material.
10 Environmental Regulations the Republican Congress Wants to Kill
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Jason Plautz
Republicans have made no secret of their plans to swipe at what they’ve deemed an overly burdensome environmental agenda from the Obama administration, and the change in power in the Senate provides both some new turf and leverage to do it. That effort kicked off in earnest Wednesday when the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Senate Environment and Public Works committees teamed up for a joint hearing to grill Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy on the agency’s proposed expansion of its Clean Water Act authority.
Technology
Net neutrality rules: Six key points
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
The Internet rules the Federal Communications Commission proposed Wednesday would apply to fixed and wireless broadband, regulate interconnection deals, and ban fast lanes.
This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
WIRED
Chairman Tom Wheeler
Originally, I believed that the FCC could assure internet openness through a determination of “commercial reasonableness” under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. While a recent court decision seemed to draw a roadmap for using this approach, I became concerned that this relatively new concept might, down the road, be interpreted to mean what is reasonable for commercial interests, not consumers. That is why I am proposing that the FCC use its Title II authority to implement and enforce open internet protections.
Stop the Internet Iron Curtain
USA TODAY
Michael Powell
In the long traditions of America, freedom has rightly been defined as protection against the heavy hand of the State. Internet freedom is no different, having flourished as a platform for discourse, for entrepreneurism, and even for revolution against oppression. A central ingredient of its democratizing power has been to keep government at bay, to prevent censorship, to avoid surveillance, to build and create without government permission or interference. The last thing we should do is turn back the clock on broadband rules or lock the Internet away behind some new Iron Curtain of government control.
Washington Conquers the Internet
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Mr. Wheeler claims that his “proposal assures the rights of internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission.” That’s false. They will soon be asking his permission, an historic blunder that will politicize an Internet economy that has until now been dominated by innovators and consumers.
How White House Thwarted FCC Chief on Internet Rules
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Gautham Nagesh and Brody Mullins
The prod from Mr. Obama came after an unusual, secretive effort inside the White House, led by two aides who built a case for the principle known as “net neutrality” through dozens of meetings with online activists, Web startups and traditional telecommunications companies.
Remember Netflix’s deal with Comcast? The FCC’s proposal on net neutrality could overturn agreements like those.
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
The FCC’s draft net neutrality rule allows any company that feels like it’s been unfairly treated in the middle mile (e.g., Netflix) to file a complaint and have the agency examine what’s going on. In responding to the proposal Wednesday, Netflix said: “If such an oversight process had been in place last year, we certainly would’ve used it when a handful of ISPs opted to hold our members hostage until we paid up.”
Google and Net Neutrality: It’s Complicated
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Alistair Barr
Google has supported the equal treatment of Internet traffic, but has been quieter on whether broadband providers should be regulated under Title II as telecommunications utilities. Wednesday, a Google spokeswoman declined to comment on Wheeler’s proposal.
Here’s What People Are Saying About the Net Neutrality Proposal
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Tweets, statements, etc.
The Patent Troll Wars are Back in Congress
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Dustin Volz
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte on Thursday will reintroduce White House-supported legislation that aims to reduce predatory patent litigation—better known as “patent trolling.” The Virginia Republican is reviving the same bill that cleared the House with overwhelming bipartisan support last Congress, according to sources familiar with the language.
Ending Welfare for Telecom Giants
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Commissioner Ajit Pai
Should the federal government hand out more than $3 billion from American taxpayers to a Fortune 500 company as part of a program to help small and disadvantaged businesses compete with large corporations? Of course not, but it’s about to happen.
Finance
Overseer of Fannie and Freddie Takes Cautious Steps to Strengthen Housing Market
NEW YORK TIMES
Dionne Searcey
On Wednesday, in his first on-the-record meeting with reporters since becoming director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency more than a year ago, Mel Watt came across as a cautious tinkerer, one who is hesitant to make sweeping changes that might be perceived as exceeding his mandate as the overseer of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-owned institutions that back most home loans.
The U.S. Is Number Two
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Wonderful news, readers. The U.S. has slipped in the rankings of nations with the highest tax on capital investment. America is now merely the second worst behind France, the home of celebrity economist Thomas Piketty and which you may have heard has been having some economic troubles.
Defining economic failure down
WASHINGTON POST
George Will
The progressive project of maximizing the number of people dependent on government is also aided by the acid of insecurity that grows rapidly when the economy does not. Anxious and disappointed people are susceptible to progressives’ blandishments about the political allocation of wealth and opportunity — “free” this and that. By making slow growth normal, iatrogenic government serves the progressive program of defining economic failure down.
Critics’ concerns about the Trans-Pacific Partnership are overblown
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
Obviously, there’s a trade-off: Drug prices must be high enough to encourage risk-taking but not so high as to limit access or bankrupt insurance systems. The United States, which accounts for 4.5 percent of the world’s population but 39 percent of global spending on pharmaceuticals, probably subsidizes health systems in Europe and elsewhere. The robust intellectual-property rights and relatively higher prices U.S. drug firms enjoy in their domestic market enable them to sell medicine in price-controlled markets abroad. No doubt that system is imperfect, but the TPP is best understood as a realistic effort to make it work better.
Politics
The GOP’s 2016 Edge
POLITICO
Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley
All that said, some might put a pinkie on the scale for the GOP at this very early moment. Why? Primarily because American politics is cyclical, and our recurrent history makes an argument for turnover at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Seeding a Democratic Defeat in 2016
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Karl Rove
The year’s arc is set: Led by their stubborn and ideologically rigid president, Democrats will obstruct popular Republican proposals in Congress. If this keeps pushing middle-class and working-class voters toward the GOP, it would help Republicans win their first presidential election in a dozen years.
Here’s how the GOP would repeal and replace Obamacare
WASHINGTON POST
Jason Millman
The plan, presented by Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), is in part intended to help manage any potential chaos from a pivotal Supreme Court ruling expected later this year that could invalidate subsidies for federal-run health insurance exchanges across the country.
On Economy, Jeb Bush Tests Divergent Message
NEW YORK TIMES
Jonathan Martin
Jeb Bush used his first campaign-style speech on Wednesday to focus on the difficulties of low-income Americans, signaling that he intends to position himself on economic issues like income inequality in a way that diverges from the approach traditionally championed by the Republican Party. … “The recovery has been everywhere but in the family paychecks,” Mr. Bush told 500 members of the Detroit Economic Club gathered at the Cobo Center. “The American dream has become a mirage for far too many.”
White House loses 2 big guns
POLITICO
Edward-Isaac Dovere
The White House announced two major departures Wednesday — senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, and communications director Jennifer Palmieri — both of whom were central to President Barack Obama’s post-midterms reboot and the rethinking of strategy around the State of the Union.
AP-GfK Poll: Support of Gay Marriage Comes With Caveats
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Emily Swanson and Brady McCombs
While finding that Americans narrowly favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry, a new Associated Press-GfK poll also shows most believe wedding-related businesses should be allowed to deny service to same-sex couples for religious reasons. Roughly half the country also thinks local officials and judges with religious objections ought to be exempt from any requirement that they issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, according to the poll.
Governor of Illinois Takes Aim at Labor
NEW YORK TIMES
Richard Pérez-Peña
Joining the ranks of Republican governors taking aim at the power of labor unions, the new chief executive of Illinois, Gov. Bruce Rauner, said on Wednesday that the state should ban some political contributions by public employee unions and allow local “right to work” laws. In his first State of the State address, Mr. Rauner called for contracts that reward government employees’ performances rather than longevity, and for an overhaul of laws that he said inflated the cost of public projects by mandating how contractors pay workers.
